


The White of Surrender

by IggyLikesPie



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Hux-centric, M/M, Smoking, Starkiller - Freeform, mentioned bottom Kylo, mentioned submissive Kylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 06:29:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6645094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IggyLikesPie/pseuds/IggyLikesPie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux never intended to die like this - on a planet he hollowed out with Kylo Ren's head in his lap - but the galaxy intended otherwise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The White of Surrender

**Author's Note:**

  * For [disheveleddarkness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/disheveleddarkness/gifts).



> For disheveleddarkness and the prompt 'Hux does not find Kylo in time at the end of the movie. By the time he reaches him, the planet is too unstable to go elsewhere. They die together.'
> 
>  
> 
> Title from 'Out of the Blue' by Simon Armitage: 
> 
> _'I am trying and trying._  
>  _The heat behind me is bullying, driving,_  
>  _but the white of surrender is not yet flying._  
>  _I am not at the point of leaving, diving.'_

The moment that Hux heard Petty Officer Thanisson scoff under his breath at Lieutenant Mitaka's report of squadrons of X-Wings descending in attack formation, as if no threat was being posed, he should have known that the whole operation would never end well.

 

Mere hours ago he had been on top of the galaxy, red fire lighting up his eyes as it burnt through the sky and the Republic was left decimated at his feat. 

 

Even his father had been slightly less disapproving after the General proved that he could- _would_ take the galaxy as his own. After his speech and the successful firing of Starkiller, Hux had returned to his office on the base and had been greeted by a holo of his father. He didn't say congratulations but it was the proudest Brendol Jr. had ever seen his father- damn, the older man had even almost smiled.

 

That should really have been another indicator of the shit storm to come, really.

 

In fact, the whole day should really have tipped him off that the galaxy was going to screw him over. It had just been too normal, too simple, too damn _domestic_ nearly.

 

Ren had been almost too willing to ride him that morning; half asleep and hair mussed as he lazily lifted himself and ground back down, Hux whispering obscenities in his ear that only made Kylo moan louder, ride him harder.

 

Millicent had casually curled around his ankles as he ate, softly meowing as she did so and even let Ren pet her before he left for the _Finalizer_.

 

Even the fact that the officers' cafeteria had had his favourite marmalade made from Corellian oranges that morning now felt like an insult when everything had turned to banther shit so quickly.

 

A blip on the scanners of a ship travelling at lightspeed close to the planet, the shields suddenly going down with Phasma's override code, X-Wings dive-bombing the thermal oscillator, an alarm blaring, and Ren - kriffing  _Ren_ \- saying that the girl had escaped, some nobody scavenger from a backwater Hell hole, loose in the base because 'she's untrained but strong with the Force'.

 

This wasn't Hux's jurisdiction - he was a military man. A man of order and discipline like his father before him and his father before him and so on. He wasn't meant to deal with old-world magicians who wanted to pull his life's work down around him.

 

Yet here he is.

 

He runs into Snoke's chamber, jumping as yet more of his base crumbles. "The fuel cells have ruptured," he tells the colossal image of the Supreme Leader. "The collapse of the planet has begun."

 

Snoke is quiet for a moment and Hux honestly believes he will feel the air being choked from his lungs at any second. Instead, Snoke says "Leave the base at once and come to me with Kylo Ren. It is time to complete his training."

 

Hux leaves immediately, almost running to get to a shuttle. He tells himself that he is only going because of Snoke's orders and that he hadn't already been considering retrieving the overgrown child he was tasked with looking after. 

 

He wasn't attached to Ren, what they had wasn't a relationship, and he certainly did not have feelings for the wannabe-Sith. He was merely a good fuck. So willing once he'd been broken in.

 

Sleeping in Hux's bed meant nothing; they normally finished their _activities_ late and Ren leaving the general's rooms would cause suspicion. The kisses exchanged in private were meaningless; when they were soft instead of heated and angry, it was only Hux indulging Ren and his need for closeness, the soft press of lips was merely an obligation. The fact that there were more of Ren's clothes in Hux's quarters than in his own was nothing of significance; the days, weeks, months leading up to the completion of Starkiller had been stressful and Hux needed Ren in his qu-

 

Who is he kidding. He cares about the stupid, impulsive brat that had slowly carved himself into every aspect of the general's life.

 

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

 

Hux is only a few corridors from the main hangar when Captain Phasma rounds the corner, her helmet under her arm and her armour and cape dirty with... on second thought, Hux doesn't want to know.

 

"General, there-"

 

"If you're about to tell me about intruders, I already know." He was never normally this rude. Well, to anyone but Ren that is. "The planet is imploding and I'm ordering an evacuation. Get your best troopers out and as many of the bridge officers as you can. And- and get Millie, she'll be scared stiff right now."

 

Phasma runs a hand through her disheveled blonde hair and nods. "Of course, sir." She salutes before replacing her helmet and heading off, steps calm and regulated even as the base shakes and groans around them.

 

The hangar itself is a mess. Part of the runway is crumbling in on itself, alarms blaring and grating across Hux's every nerve, personnel running and shouting in every direction.

 

Hux goes to the wall-comm and keys in the code for the control centre. "I'm taking shuttle 51-B. Authorisation General Hux, code 7791-21." he tells the shaky-voiced officer who answers the comm.

 

"Y-yes of course, sir. I'll clear the route to the _Fina_ -"

 

"I'm not going to the _Finalizer_ , clear the airspace over the oscillator and the surrounding forests." he practically shouts over the roaring of engines and the low rumbling of the planet dying.

 

"Sir, that area is the least unstable w-"

 

"This is an order, lieutenant! Clear the airspace!"

 

"Of course, General Hux, sir!" they squeak and Hux lets the comm call end.

 

He walks swiftly to shuttle 51-B and boards, easily sinking into the pilot's seat and starting the engines. It's nothing complicated; designed for a small transport of ten people not including the pilot and co-pilot. 

 

After clearing the hangar, Hux pulls out the tracker he placed on Kylo months ago and activates it. A red blip appears almost instantly on the screen surrounded by white lines showing the geography of the area where Ren is. While the red point stays a constant, the white lines are constantly shaking and breaking, showing the collapse of the planet around the Knight.

 

The idiot had managed to make it almost a kilometre from the oscillator's main building on his goose chase with the traitor and the scavenger. Hux just hopes Kylo is still alive, he'll probably be somewhat worse for wear but Hux doesn't care. _Just as long as he's alive, just as long as he's alive_ , he chants to himself in his head as flies the craft closer to where Kylo is.

 

The instruments around Hux blare warnings about his surroundings; the computer's voice is declaring at least four separate cautions while red Aurebesh covers the majority of the screens, yelling at him over and over that gravity is distorting, that rock and fire are flying too close to the ship, that the colonel on board the _Finalizer_ is trying to contact him.

 

Hux ignores them all and instead keys in the landing sequence, bringing the shuttle down low over the skeletal trees and setting it down in a clearing. He could see a fissure waiting to open off to one side but if he was quick he could make it.

 

He runs from the shuttle and into the woods, colour having drained from the world leaving everything dark and grey apart from the fire in the distance that lunges from the splintering surface and into the sky.

 

He stumbles once, twice, as he makes his way to the body resting in a snow bank, dark stains marring the snow around it. The trees loom overhead while their roots pull tight, determined to take him down with them.

 

Hux collapses next to Ren and wastes no time in waking the man gently. He pulls Ren's left arm over his shoulder and starts to stand. The Knight is heavy but he should be able to manage.

 

"'x..." Kylo mutters, a frown beginning to form on his face while his eyelids flutter.

 

"It's me, Kylo, it's me. Come on, we need to go." Hux tells him, starting to move them both towards the ship. 

 

"... failed, 'x, I failed." Kylo bares his teeth, Hux doesn't know if it's in anger or in pain but he can't afford to worry about that now.

 

"Only a little more, Ky, we need to keep going." He can see the crevice to the left of the ship growing, spitting out the fire of a vengeful star.

 

"'m sorry, 'm sorry."

 

"Don't worry about it." Hux grunts, shifting Ren's weight slightly. Was he getting heavier?

 

No more than ten metres from the craft, the unthinkable happens. One moment Hux dared to believe they'd make it, the next the crack in the ice was widening, yawning like a waking titan, and the ship was tilting dangerously.

 

"No!" Hux calls, as if that could help them in any way.

 

Time seemed to slow down, becoming thick like Narvian syrup being poured from a jar, and Hux watches as the ground beneath the ship crumbles, carelessly throwing the ship into the fiery abyss below.

 

The sounds of the planet dying fade and all Hux can hear are his own thoughts:

_There was no hope they were going to be saved now._

 

"'x?" Kylo asks before coughing, a horrible wet sound that made Hux's stomach churn and left a dark dribble running from Ren's mouth. Hux knows that in a proper light it'd be a stark red against his pale skin. "Wha's wrong?"

 

Hux looks down at where Kylo's head rests on his shoulder, his eyes still closed. "Nothing, Ky, we've just got to wait for the transport."

 

Ren grunts and Hux catches a proper look at him as a lick of fire rises from the latest opening, bathing them both in an orange light. Kylo is pale, his skin as grey as the snow around them, but a sharp line of red and black bisects his face.

 

With a little manoeuvring, Hux manages to lower them both to the ground so he can lean against a tree with Ren lying across him, his head on the general's chest. From the edge of the clearing, Hux can see the mauw that swallowed their ship and he decides he hates that bit of the entire galaxy more than any other. Beyond that, trees stretch skyward like charred bones, creaking and groaning against the thunder of the planet's disintegration.

 

They'd been so close.

 

"'ow long does the planet 'ave?" Kylo asks after a few moments.

 

"Not long; when I left the base the scanners were already showing that the atmosphere was waning." Hux runs a hand through Kylo's hair and looks skyward. 

 

Now that he thinks about it, he hasn't simply looked at the stars in so long. When did they stop being points of wonder and start being nothing more than fuel cells?

 

They could all have been his, those he could see and those that lay beyond. Every system and every planet could have been his to bring order to, to _save_ , but no, instead he is going to die on the same day he thought he had succeeded. His goal had been within his grasp but had slipped away at the last moment. 

 

"Are you sure they're comin'?"

 

Hux wants to tell Kylo to stop being impatient, he wants to tell him that the craft will be here soon, to tell him that everything will be fine.

 

Instead he sighs. He should have just told him. "There's no one coming, Ky."

 

"What?" The Knight doesn't sound angry, just confused, like he doesn't understand what Hux is saying.

 

"I came here on a shuttle. Alone. It fell into a fissure. The rest of the base has been evacuated. If they have any sense, the _Finalizer_ will have already gone to lightspeed and will be far away by now."

 

Although the planet screams around them, the moments Kylo isn't speaking weigh heavily on Hux like deathly silence.

 

"So... So we're dead?"

 

Hux doesn't answer- he _can't_ answer.

 

"Bren, does this mean we're dead?" Kylo croaks. Is he about to cry or is he in pain? Hux doesn't know.

 

"I'm afraid it does."

 

He tries to count how long they have as they lie there; he was sure he had heard one of the officers shout something about twenty standard minutes as he left the bridge but was that to get to a safe distance or how long they actually had? Was it the time they had before the atmosphere dissipated or before the planet fully gave way to the star held inside?

 

"'ave you had your victory smoke yet?" Kylo asks, interrupting Hux's thoughts with a voice that is dry and scratchy, the very sound of it drives nails into Hux's ears, his mind, his heart.

 

"There's no victory to celebrate."

 

"I think gettin' as far as we did is victory enough."

 

Hux tilts his head down to the Knight. The light is poor despite the stars littering the sky above them and Kylo seems to be purely monochrome; his skin a pale grey, his eyes and hair hair as black as the void between the dying planet they lie on and the next one that could be lived on. "I suppose it is."

 

Hux pulls out his small cigarillo box from the inside pocket of his uniform, the usually gleaming silver appearing dull in the dark, and draws a thin cigarette from it, places it between his lips, and lights it. The flame is a small point of colour in the rapidly descending void and it almost hurts Hux's eyes as he holds it to the end of his cigarette.

 

The first drag soothes the general's mind somewhat and he lets out the smoke in a slow sigh, the smoke curling higher but easily blending in with the desolate dark around them.

 

"Better?" Kylo asks, his eyes are hooded now, unfocused but looking up towards the other man.

 

"As better as it could be." Another drag, another sigh, another minute of hearing the world tear itself apart around them. It won't be long now. Hux can hear the crust of the planet splitting open, the fire inside hissing and screaming as it crawls out from inside the planet.

 

Hux supposes it's almost poetic that he is going to be killed by the fire he had planned on using to kill others.

 

Kylo gestures vaguely towards Hux with his hand. "Can I?"

 

"You shouldn't be smoking."

 

"'m about to die, 'x, I don't think-"

 

"I meant, can you even sit up, Ren?" The Knight pouts and looks away. "You can shotgun if you're desperate." Hux offers.

 

Ren seems to consider that for a moment before nodding, a wince appearing on his face as his injuries are jostled slightly.

 

Hux takes a drag and holds it before leaning down, parting Ren's lips with his gloved fingers, and pressing his own to them, breathing out and into Kylo's waiting mouth.

 

Hux sits up as Ren lets out a thin stream of smoke. "Better?" Hux mimicks.

 

"Not really, no." Kylo deadpans, still staring up at where the smoke had disappeared.

 

Hux says nothing as he takes another pull and strokes Kylo's hair slowly.

 

The cigarette doesn't last nearly half as long as Hux wants and by the end he feels as drained as the butt he still holds.

 

Kylo hadn't spoken while Hux finished and the ginger wonders if he's trying to contact the Force or something, one last attempt at getting someone - some _thing_ \- to save them. It isn't like Ren to be so quiet, after all, even when he was injured or angry or well fucked.

 

"Kylo?" 

 

No response.

 

"Ren?" Hux asks again.

 

Hux places his hand on Kylo's neck, trying to feel for a pulse but he can't feel one, the once-familiar _lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub_ now absent beneath his cold fingers.

 

"No, no no no." Hux can't help it, he shakes Ren's shoulders. "You can't leave me!" he cries, actually cries, he can feel hot tears stinging his eyes in a way they haven't for years. "'Until the end', Ren, how many times did you say that to me?!" His stomach feels sick, his lungs can't pull in enough air, his heart _aches_.

 

The part of Hux's mind that remains rational knows that the atmosphere of the planet was dissipating, the air becoming thin and slowly choking him.

 

A larger part of him, however, simply screams and cries and sobs.

 

The great General Hux, destroyer of the Hosnian System, razer of the Republic, reduced to _this_.

 

Burying his face in Ren's hair, he allows himself a few moments to dream, to entertain the image of him and Ren living their lives so differently.

 

In his mind's eye he can see it clearly: he would be covered head-to-foot in red, black, and gold robes with a gold crown resting on top of his copper hair. His throne room would be grand, a true show of power that even the Empire had not had. Marble columns and large banners, his officers at attention before him, even his father looking up at where he sat on his gold throne with unwavering loyalty. 

 

And to his right, who would be better than the Emperor's protector? Of course Ren would still be wearing black, that hideous lightsaber strapped to his belt, but his mask would be nowhere to be seen, his hair flowing around his face instead of in front of it for once. 

 

They could have been glorious.

 

  
_Or maybe you could have just been normal_ , another part of him whispers.

 

Hux can see that too. If his father hadn't been so dedicated to the Empire and the Order and had settled on some Mid-Rim world, if Ben Solo had never given way to Kylo Ren.

 

Maybe they'd have met when their parents were discussing trade agreements, maybe they'd have met on some space station where they were both stopping to eat, maybe they'd meet at some Senate meeting. 

 

There are as many maybes as there are stars in the sky and Hux can dream and wish and hope for as many of them as he wants but the fact of the matter remains: he is going to die on some planet everyone has forgotten the actual name of in the middle of uncharted territory with the body of his dead lover draped over him.

 

He isn't going to rule the galaxy, he isn't going to be a planetary chancellor, he isn't going to bump into Ren on the street and exchange comm numbers with him with a stupid grin on his face, he isn't going to accidentally pick up Ren's caf in some tiny shop on Coruscant, he isn't going to knock on Kylo's door because he'd run out of sugar and that's what you borrow from neighbours, right?

 

He is going to die. 

 

He is going to die, alone and forgotten. Just another mote of dust drifting through the galaxy one moment and gone the next. No ripples, no impact, no importance.

 

Ren's face is cold as Hux holds it in his hands, his eyes are closed and his lips slightly parted but no breath passes between them. The general presses a soft kiss to his knight's forehead before pulling Kylo's body up slightly and holding him close, his cheek resting on dark hair that's always been too long for regulation.

 

He simply lies there, then, holding Kylo close like he had numerous nights before, and he waits for sleep to come. He knows that this time, however, there would be no waking up: there would be no 'Bren, move over, my arm's gone dead', there would be no 'Kylo, did you use the last of the conditioner again?', there would be no 'Millicent, no, that's not your breakfast!'.

 

Brendol closes his eyes. 

At least it will be over soon.

**Author's Note:**

> other points I thought about while writing this:  
> \- Leia doesn't find out Kylo/Ben died on Starkiller until the First Order is eventually defeated and she looks through the records.  
> \- She hates herself for it but she blames  Rey and can't look her in the eye anymore.  
> \- Hux's dad refuses to have Hux's name written in the family mausoleum and disowns him.  
> \- Mitaka gets charge of Millicent and she cries every night for months, pawing at the door waiting for Hux to come back but he never will.
> 
> I'd like to thank hux-capacitor for being a brilliant go-to and answering any and every question I had  
> I would also like to thank infinitejellybean for the beta and for encouraging me every step of the way  
> I hope this is what you wanted when you signed up and that you've enjoyed it


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